This bright nova, discovered on December 7.47 UT by Syuichi Nakano of Japan at photographic magnitude 6.5 (see AAVSO Notice 179), has been very well monitored by observers worldwide. Its optical light curve, created from observations reported to the AAVSO, indicates it brightened to about visual magnitude 5.7 by mid·Oecember, and then has slowly declined to magnitude 8.4 by February 7, with fluctuations as much as 1 magnitude in amplitude.
We have been informed by our member William Liller, Vina del Mar, Chile, of his photographic discovery, using PROBLICOM, of a nova in Lupus at magnitude 8.0 (average of two photographs, TechPan film plus orange filter) on September 19.02 UT. The 1950 position, precessed from the equinox 2000 measurements provided by R.H. McNaught and G. J. Garradd, Anglo-Australian Observatory, is
June 3, 2011: As an update to AAVSO Special Notice #241 (http://www.aavso.org/aavso-special-notice-241), the supernova in M51 has been designated SN 2011dh. Discovery, classification, and observation information have been published in IAU CBET 2736 (Daniel W. E. Green, ed.).
Coordinates: 13:30:05.08 +47:10:11.2 (J2000.0)
Coordinates source is Silverman et al., ATEL 3398
Observations should be submitted to the AAVSO International Database using the name SN 2011dh.
Independent discovery by:
- Minoru Yamamoto (Okazaki, Aichi-ken, Japan, reported via H. Yamaoka, Kyushu University)
- Yuji Nakamura (Kameyama, Mie, Japan, reported via Yamaoka)
Discovery magnitude:
- Yamamoto: ~10.6 on four 15-second frames and using a Canon 5DMRK2 camera + 135-mm lens
- Nakamura: ~10.6 on a 30-second CCD image and using a 135-mm lens
March 10, 2016: Further to AAVSO Alert Notice 537, the anticipated secondary eclipse of b Per is underway, according to information from campaign astronomer Dr. Donald F. Collins. Dr. Collins writes:
March 1, 2016: Ms. Deanne Coppejans (PhD candidate, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) and University of Cape Town) and colleagues have requested AAVSO observer assistance in monitoring several northern dwarf novae in support of their campaign to observe them with the Very Large Array (VLA) in their ongoing radio jet research. Their research on radio jets in dwarf novae has been discussed in AAVSO Alert Notice 505.
February 26, 2016: Dr. Jeno Sokoloski (Columbia University) and Mr. Adrian Lucy (graduate student, Columbia University) have requested AAVSO observations of the jet-driving symbiotic star V694 Mon (MWC 560), which is in outburst, in support of upcoming Chandra observations to investigate the state of the inner accretion disk during this outburst.
The Chandra observations are scheduled (preliminary schedule) for 2016 March 8 (7:17-14:13 UTC) and March 9 (2:20-9:17 UTC).
